Darienne

In our freezer are currently smallish pieces of cooked meats: ham, turkey, chicken and roast beef. The ham and beef are there for Ed to defrost and have with his salad at night if he chooses...and the turkey and chicken mainly to make chicken/turkey salad for sandwiches. We also have cooked ground pork and hamburger to add to sauces or Chinese dishes or soups if either of us gets around to that part of life again (not for two years now...).

I think we might be sisters with a different mother...and our husbands might be related also. I worked as a descriptive bibliographer before I retired and the work demanded absolute care. Not a letter nor a number out of place. Ed says he lives by the seat of his pants...and so he does!!!!

Have you considered an additional career as a professional food photographer/plater? Your plated salads look so inviting.

I did call last week and again this morning. The woman who answered my call said she would look into...with a distinct lack of interest and enthusiasm. I can't say as I blame her. Our MP is not in the party which is in power and food adminisration is not his known interest. So, now we sits and waits.

You are so right. As we speak I've got a cabbage in the fridge, still edible as soon as I trim it, which is older than I want to admit publicly.

And for that matter, tossing a cabbage certainly would not put a dent in your fiances. No one throws out food lightly but it could be excused this once.

i would add a tomato sauce of some kind.

You're right. I do eat leftover cooked vegetables straight from the fridge cold with no sauce or anything...but Ed would never do this. In fact, he constantly complains...and it's one of the few things he actually complains about...that the cheese sauce which I make and which he slathers all over whatever vegetable it is..is too thin. (It has enough flour and cornstarch and cheese to sink the proverbial ship. )

What cooked vegetable with what sauce or trimming will keep its taste and texture and general deliciousness after sitting for a day or two in a fridge?

Ed picked green beans. I have no idea what would both start off tasting good...and end up tasting good two days later.

No cream and no cheese. I emptied a jar of some kind of Classico tomato sauce for pasta...the jar is long gone and I'd never used one before...and a can of Rotel.

There may be science behind it but not much in the way of reality. We are still eating frozen stuff that I froze almost two years just before my condition went south almost overnight. And they all seem fine. However, I'm not recommending the situation. It's a strange feeling, reading all these great posts about planning for surgery and steps to take to get ready for meals post surgery. I made no plans for post surgery and ensuing problems...I had no idea that I'd be sidelined so quickly and so completely...thus the eating of meals frozen two years ago. Since the children left home many years ago, this is pretty much the way we've always cooked. I guess that's why Ed is still finding the odd uneaten meal in our freezers...yes we have multiple freezers. I could add that my wonderful overworked husband, Ed, has pretty much done all the food prep and cooking all this time...although this week I did make a new dish, Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls, and three meals are now in the freezer.

I first heard of listeria when took a food handling course in order to become a chocolatier...oh, does this go back a good many years and no, I never did, but had many years of wonderful fun with my confectionary partner making so many different confections. Plus we had a terrific time taking a chocolate course from eGullet's own Chocolate Doctor, Kerry Beal. Back to listeria...the most interesting and alarming thing about it was that it could take up to an entire month before you get symptoms. Just checking up on google: "It is correct that listeria symptoms can take a month to appear; in fact, the incubation period for the more severe form of the illness, known as invasive listeriosis, can range from a few days to as long as two to three months (70 days or more). "

Yesterday Ed bought some New Zealand 'lean ground beef' on "Special" (aka: on sale) 450 g. 2 packages, total weight 900 g. He fried them on the stove in the normal fashion and the after cooked weight was 573 g. That's a loss of 37.5%. In US terms, that's 32 oz of meat and left with 20 oz after cooking. Of course there's always expected to be some water in the meat...but so much? Was there more because the meat was on sale? Is it ever worthwhile buying meat on sale or is so much loss simply to be expected, no sale or sale? All thoughts on the subject are welcome.

That's it. I'm moving to SoCal and will be your housemate. I could live on salad. We have it 2 out of 3 nights...I mean nothing else besides salads of all kinds. They don't look as good as @blue_dolphin's but I love them.